A look back at the predictions I made for 2014
December 31st, 2014

Dogasu @ 16:19 JST -- For this site's anniversary I like to take a look ahead at the coming year and make predictions for where I think the franchise is heading.  Today I want to look back at the predictions I made for 2014 and see how well I did:

There won't be any new main series games this year because we just had two years in a row with new entries.  We'll still get video games, of course - Smash Bros. is coming up soon(-ish?), and I imagine we'll probably get another Mystery Dungeon by the end of the year - but I don't see another main series game coming out in 2014.  At the most, I'd say we'll get info about an upcoming third version (I don't think they'll pull the sequel trick again) toward the end of the year in preparation for a 2015 release.

Haha, whoops, wrong on all accounts.  We obviously did get a new main series game (Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire), Smash Bros came out closer toward the end of the year than the beginning, and there wasn't so much as a peep on the Mystery Dungeon side of things.  Wrong, wrong, wrong. 

Despite all this I do still think that we'll get a third version (Pocket Monsters Z? Pocket Monsters X2 Y2?) in 2015.

In the TV series, I think Satoshi will get badges two through six in 2014.  I feel like the days of us having huge, four year long sagas are behind us and that XY will probably last about as long as Best Wishes! did.  I think the Flare-Dan will make an appearance in 2014 as well and I'm fairly confident they'll refrain from using the "ultimate weapon" storyline from the games.  I'd like to be surprised, of course, but I doubt the TV series will make them anything other than a group who's out to steal pokemon.

He got badges two and three.  Thankfully I've been wrong so far about XY being a short series; it's closer to Diamond & Pearl than Best Wishes!, and that's a very good thing. 

The Flare-Dan sorta-kinda made an appearance with Fleur-de-Lys in the second Mega Evolution special but beyond that?  Nothing.  I still don't think they'll use the ultimate weapon plot from the games, though.

2014 is TV-Tokyo's 50th anniversary and the network said they'd be doing something special with Pocket Monsters sometime during the year.  What will that be?  I would love for it to be them doing HD remasters of the original series and airing that on, say, Tuesday nights, but I think it's probably more realistic to expect something like a one-off TV special instead.  Maybe Pocket Monsters The Origin 2 Gold & Silver?  Or something related to this year's movie, similar to last year's Myuutwo special?

Yeah, nothing really came of that, did it?  We got that ridiculous little Diancie special in July, so that's kind of right?  We got the Mega Evolution specials but those are going to continue into 2015 so they aren't really that much of a 50th anniversary thing anymore.

I've already said this elsewhere on the site, but I'll repeat it here:  I think this year's movie will feature an unannounced Mega Evolution that will only be made available as DLC in XY.  Yes, even with the recent announcement of Diancie being the "other" pokemon.

Mega Diancie was an unannounced Mega Evolution and was featured in this year's movie.  It's not available in XY, DLC or otherwise, but still.

I think Darkrai will win the poll going on in Japan right now and will become the pre-order ticket bonus.

Finally!  Darkrai did indeed win and I've got him sitting in my copy of Y to prove it.

CD-wise:  We'll get the J'Deez CD, a soundtrack for Smash Bros, three versions of the ending theme to The Cocoon of Destruction, and a soundtrack featuring the BGM from said movie.  I also see the TV series replacing the current opening theme sometime in 2014 so that'll get a single as well.  Ending themes...I'm thinking three new ones in 2014.  That brings us up to ten CDs.  I hope we get a Best Wishes! background music compilation in 2014 as well, so that'll bring us up to eleven.

We got the J'Deez CD (with that awesome Matsumoto Rika version of Volt!), four versions of the ending theme to the Diancie movie instead of three, two versions of the soundtrack CD, and a single for Mega Volt (which is technically a "new"song).  The Smash Bros. soundtrack and the DreaDrea single won't come out until next year.  That Best Wishes! BGM compilation I somehow hoped was coming didn't come out, sadly.

Manga-wise:  I think Pokemon The Legend of the Ryuu-Oh will only run up until the April issue of CoroCoro Comics.  After that, the manga adaptation of The Cocoon of Destruction will take its place and run from the May 2014 issue to the July 2014 issue of CoroCoro.  As for Pocket Monsters Special, I think we'll see a (rushed and disappointing) conclusion to the B2W2 storyline in the graphic novels toward the end of the year.

Pokemon The Legend of the Ryuu-Oh ended exactly when I thought it would.

The Cocoon of Destruction and Diancie ran from the June 2014 to the July 2014 issue.

Pocket Monsters Special only just started collecting the B2W2 storyline into graphic novel form like a week ago, so my prediction there was way off.

Yeah, my predictions last year sucked.


And that's it for 2014!  It's been a pretty awesome year and I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store.  This site's 15th anniversary is exactly one month from today so I hope you enjoy what I've got in store for that big day! 

See you next year!

"Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction" - The Cartoon Network Edit
December 31st, 2014

Dogasu @ 00:24 JST -- Back on November 8th, the first Pokémon XY movie, Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction, aired on Cartoon Network.  We could all tell that a number of cuts had been made to the movie to make it fit in its timeslot but since neither the uncut Japanese DVD nor the Blu-ray was out yet all we could do was make educated guesses.

Well the DVD and Blu-ray have been released in Japan so it's time I revisited the movie to see what exactly was cut out.  When all is said and done 4 minutes and 54 seconds' worth of footage was removed from the Cartoon Network broadcast, not counting the ending theme.  I've made a record of those cuts and put them on their own pages.

Opening / World of Pokemon	Avignon Town
On the Road	Pursued by Thieves
Return to the Diamond Kingdom	Allearth Forest
Yveltal's Reign of Destruction	Life is Restored

I've also put them all onto one page, for those of you who prefer to look at them that way.

I've updated the comparison page accordingly.

Since today is the last day of the year I'll be taking a look back at the predictions I made for 2014 to see how I did.  Spoiler alert: I did not do well.  Be back later!

More tweets about the Rocket-Dan's radio show / the ORAS soundtrack is now up on the U.S. iTunes store
December 26th, 2014

Dogasu @ 23:24 JST -- On December 21st Mima Masafumi made more tweets talking about Pokemon Radio Show! The Rocket-Dan's Secret Empire and the "Secret Live" event that it spawned.  I've translated the tweets and posted them here.


This time around Mr. Mima talks about how the initial cancellation of the Secret Live brought about the chorus heard in the final episode, how he was roped into helping at the last minute, and why the show started late (something I mentioned in my write-up on the event back in March 2013).

In music news, The Pokémon Company has released the soundtrack to Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire onto the American iTunes store.  The 160-track soundtrack can be yours for a measly $9.99.


The soundtrack was originally released in Japan on December 3rd as a six-CD set.  Discs 1-4 of that set were music from the remakes + a few bonus tracks while Discs 5-6 were reprints of the original Ruby & Sapphire soundtrack from 2003.  The idea behind that was to let customers listen to the newer tracks and compare them to the older tracks to see just how much the music's changed.  The American iTunes release does not contain the music found on Discs 5-6 but you can still get the Ruby & Sapphire soundtrack on its own so its omission is not really a big deal.

By the way, the American release fails to identify which tracks are bonus tracks and which ones aren't.  Tracks 154 - 160 were clearly labeled as Bonus Tracks in the Japanese release but they're just lumped in with all the other music in the American release.  That retro-sounding Frontier Brain battle music, for example, isn't part of ORAS but you wouldn't know that just by looking at the track listing in iTunes.

There are also reports of problems with two of the tracks being repeats despite being labeled otherwise ("Cable Car" and "Obtained Bp") but hopefully those will get sorted out soon.

The CD Guide has been updated accordingly.

Masafumi Mima tweets about "Pokemon Radio Show! The Rocket-Dan's Secret Empire"
December 18th, 2014

Dogasu @ 22:57 JST -- And OMG information overload.


Back on December 2nd Mima Masafumi, the mastermind behind the excellent Pokemon Radio Show! The Rocket-Dan's Secret Empire, spent about an hour writing tweet after tweet divulging information about the radio show he helped bring to us back in 2012.  He reveals things such as how the pilot was recorded, just how scripted the show really was, how the show originally only had a thirteen episode order and why he was hesitant to do another batch, how the show had no budget whatsoever, and more!  It's all very fascinating stuff.

I've translated all fifteen tweets and put them on their own page here.  I hope you find it as engrossing as I did!


Here's some twelve year old manga!
December 5th, 2014

Dogasu @ 23:22 JST -- Over the last three months Shogakukan has been re-releasing the Ruby & Sapphire Chapter of the manga Pocket Monsters Special through a series they call "My First Big Special: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL."  They're not unlike the "VIZBIG" volumes Viz releases in the U.S. for their other series; several volumes' worth of content get crammed into a single book designed to help people who are behind on the story to catch up.  This re-release collects all seven volumes worth of content (Volumes 15 - 22) into four books.

My First Big Special Ruby / Sapphire 01	My First Big Special Ruby & Sapphire 02	My First Big Special Ruby & Sapphire 03	My First Big Special Ruby & Sapphire 04

Today I've created pages for all four volumes that list what chapters are contained in each one.  But that's not all!  Each volume also has a number of informative essays written by writer of the series Kusaka Hidenori that go into how they decided various aspects of the series.  Why did they decide to have Ruby do Contests and Sapphire focus on battling?  How did they decide the relationship between Ruby and Senri?  How did they pick which pokemon goes to which Trainer?  Why did they give Sapphire a Kimori and why did they decide to give her an Achamo instead?  All of that and more are answered in the essays written by Mr. Kusaka.  And I've translated them all.


The fourth volume also has a detailed timeline of Ruby's and Sapphire's 80-day journey.  I've translated that too.

The fourth volume has an 18-page preview of the upcoming Thirteenth Chapter of Special, Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire.  I've written up a summary.

Finally, the fourth volume has information about said Thirteenth Chapter that I've also translated.


Enjoy!


Nintendo 3DS Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Super Music Complete
December 3rd, 2014

Dogasu @ 23:24 JST -- The massive six-disc soundtrack for Pocket Monsters Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire went on sale today so I've updated the CD Guide with a track listing for the set.  As had been previously announced, the first four discs are music from the new games (153 tracks plus seven bonus tracks) while the final two are music from the original Ruby & Sapphire.


A few notes about the Bonus Tracks found on Disc Four:

• "Birthday at the Pokemon Center!" (Disc Four, Track 36) is the same birthday music from Pocket Monsters XY that was missing from that sountrack release.  Better late than never, I guess.
  
• "Deoxys Battle! (original version)" (Disc Four, Track 38) and "Frontier Brain Battle! (original version) (Disc Four, Track 39)" are both presented as they appeared in Pocket Monsters Emerald for the Game Boy Advance.  The Deoxys song had never been released on CD before was released on the FireRed & LeafGreen CD set back in 2004 (Disc Two, Track 2) while the Frontier Brain music was released as a Bonus Track on the Nintendo DS Pokemon Black 2 / White 2 Super Music Complete CD set back in 2012 (Disc Four, Track 15).  Also, way to put a Frontier Brain song on the ORAS soundtrack despite the games not having a Battle Frontier, seems kind of like a dick move if you ask me.
  
• "Appeal ☆ Love" (Disc Four, Track 42) is a pop song complete with lyrics.  It is sung by Orikasa Naomi (折笠奈緒美).
  
• The two Ruby & Sapphire discs (Discs Five and Six) are exactly the same as the CD set that was released here in Japan back in 2003.  Same track names, same track order, same number of tracks per disc, nearly identical label on the CD itself...everything's the same.  It even includes all the Game Corner stuff that ended up getting cut for the remakes because of European PEGI classifications, making their omission in the new games all the more conspicuous.
  

You can order Nintendo 3DS Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Super Music Complete from Amazon Japan, CD Japan, Play-Asia, and YesAsia.  An international release has not been announced yet but I'm sure it'll show up on Western iTunes stores eventually.